Rhetorical Situation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Rhetorical Situation - Essay Example Finally, genre is the kind of writing; this would involve the specific medium of production. These elements are all important notions as they establish the structure of the rhetorical situation and demonstrate there are underlining parameters in this communication. In the text ‘They Say/ I Say’ authors Graff and Birkenstein discuss the notion of ‘entering the conversation.’ Entering the conversation refers to the process of writing or potentially speaking that engages with a listener. In this way, one enters a conversation not simply by speaking their mind, but by considering the perspective and opinion of the opposing party. As such, the individual’s writing or speaking directly considers these viewpoints and builds off of them in the form of a conversation. This is highly important for a variety of reasons. As a rhetorical strategy ‘entering the conversation’ means that the dialogue being produced is well considered and deeply engaged with another person’s views. This is a way of looking at academic writing from an entirely new perspective. The authors indicate that oftentimes academic writing is written as if there is an ultimate ‘truth,’ or written simply to say ‘smart ’ things (Graff & Birkenstein, p. 3). Instead, entering the conversation recognizes that the greatest possible insights are those that are gleaned from direct conversation and deliberation with another person. Summarizing is recognized as highly important in academic writing. From an overarching perspective, summarizing is important as it is the first step in entering the conversation. In this way summarizing, functions as an indicator that demonstrates the individual recognizes what they are responding to. The authors indicate then that it is necessary to summarize the opposing argument early in the text and then refer to it at strategic points (Graff & Birkenstein, p. 19). While summarizing is important, the text indicates that this summary should get